Images courtesy the artist
Some people see an insect and think, "Pest!" Steven Kutcher, a bug enthusiast and artist, revels in these creatures. From a young age Kutcher found it easier to engage with bugs than humans. Eventually, he parlayed his insect expertise into work as a âbug wranglerâ on Hollywood productions.But more recently Kutcher has been using bugs to create abstract paintingsâcolorful, impressionistic and non-toxic works that showcase the scuttling bugsâ paths across canvas. In the new documentary short, Bug Man, Los Angeles-based writer and director Iqbal Ahmed gets Kutcher to talk about both his life with bugs, and the art he makes with them.For a first stab at the documentary genre, Ahmedâs work is as engrossing as it is beautifully shot. Before settling on Kutcherâs story, Ahmed tells The Creators Project that he made a list of âreally weird thingsâ that might exist in the world without knowing if any of them actually existed.âOne of those was bug wrangling for movies,â Ahmed says. âI knew there were animal wranglers in Hollywood, and I was convinced there would be bug wranglers. Turns out there were, and I ultimately stumbled across Steven Kutcher.âKutcherâs story interested Ahmed on a number of levels. Fascinated with the science of insects, Ahmedâs âinner nerdâ was satisfied with the job of bug wrangling. He was also incredibly interested in the fact that Kutcher made art with insects.âThe art side was wildly inventive and particularly visual and, perhaps most of all, the human perspective was compelling,â says Ahmed. âSteven was a man who turned to insects as a child for companionship. He just jived better with nature. And to see how that blossomed into a career and then ultimately an artistic pursuit was incredible.âFor Bug Man, Ahmed wanted the audience to get a brief glimpse inside Kutcherâs universe, but also wanted to structure the film so that initially things seemed out of context. As viewers might perhaps make incorrect assumptions about Kutcher, the film instead slowly unveils new information that contrasts his solitude and emotional state.âThis art is my passion and Iâm really well suited to being able to do it with my background,â Kutcher tells Ahmed. âItâs like my life and experiences have brought me to exactly this moment."âIâm always trying something new or inventing things,â he adds. âMy ex-wife told me 'Steve, youâll never realize how many peoplesâ lives youâve touched,â so I knew to move forward with my art."Kutcher says that studying bugs has opened up avenues of adventures that he never imagined possible. It all comes down to the fact that he is just interested in the world and how it works.âIâve noticed this about peopleâtheyâll walk down a pathway and they wonât see anything,â he says. âBut when Iâm walking with another biologist, weâll spend the whole day walking maybe fifty feet because thereâs so much to see. People just donât see whatâs right in front of them.âBug Man from Iqbal Ahmed on Vimeo.Click here to see Steven Kutcherâs bug art, and here to check out more of Iqbal Ahmedâs video work.Related:A Documentary About a Brooklyn After-School Program Needs Your HelpCyberspace and Surveillance Get Visualized in a New Documentary'Silent Laughs' Is the Film Bringing Deaf Culture Mainstream
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